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Fox and Trump are trying very much to distract from the Mueller investigation.

__________________All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power & profit - Thomas Paine

The first two dominos fall, how long till we see Michael Flynn doing the perp walk I wonder.

__________________It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. -- JayUtahI am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)My Apollo Page.

__________________I've always believed that cluelessness evolved as an adaptation to allow the truly appalling to live with themselves. - G. B. TrudeauA person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. - Kay, Men in Black.Enjoy every sandwich. - Warren Zevon

How long will it take for Alex Jones To turn on Trymp and say he knew this all along?

Only if his ratings drop.

__________________All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power & profit - Thomas Paine

That was at 4:30 am.
It might nap time at the Day Care center..or maybe circle time.

Perhaps he is mapping out his tirade, "I can only do 240 characters! SAD!"
"The bigly deep state consipracy" how many is that so far? 27, "who chooses to ignore the horrible clintons..."
Okay, there's tweet #1.

I've said it all along - they can distract us all they want. They're NOT distracting Meuller. And that's all that matters.

That's pretty much it.

We're still pretty much in the bluff and bluster stage of things where there's plenty of posturing for the press. With these indictments, we might be getting toward something substantive, although the speculation from the radio talkers this morning was that these indictments deal with issues not related to the Trump campaign, and that they are a way of putting pressure on Manafort to spill the beans about stuff that is really important, assuming there are beans to spill.

One way or another, I think we can trust Mueller to follow the trail and do the right thing. If he comes up with something substantive against Trump, we'll know it, and no amount of tweeting will change that.

So will Trump hang Manafort out to dry or will he come to his defense?

__________________I've always believed that cluelessness evolved as an adaptation to allow the truly appalling to live with themselves. - G. B. TrudeauA person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. - Kay, Men in Black.Enjoy every sandwich. - Warren Zevon

See what? Did you read at least the first page of the document linked by C_Felix? The conspiracy is money laundering with their old buddies from Ukraine. A lot has been written about that in publications you don't even know about. Nuttin to do with Trump, or (in essence) Russia. But one degree to Killary.

See what? Did you read at least the first page of the document linked by C_Felix? The conspiracy is money laundering with their old buddies from Ukraine. A lot has been written about that in publications you don't even know about. Nuttin to do with Trump, or (in essence) Russia. But one degree to Killary.

You sure don't disappoint.

What about that there 1st count? That's not a Ukraine thing. That's a US thing.

I suppose it stands between Trump's worry that Manafort might cut a deal with the prosecutor for info about the Trumpettes and him worrying about pardoning Manafort removes his ability to use the fifth amendment.

"If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. " Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol. 1

See what? Did you read at least the first page of the document linked by C_Felix? The conspiracy is money laundering with their old buddies from Ukraine. A lot has been written about that in publications you don't even know about. Nuttin to do with Trump, or (in essence) Russia. But one degree to Killary.

You forgot to mention Podesta and pizzagate ...

__________________"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov

See what? Did you read at least the first page of the document linked by C_Felix? The conspiracy is money laundering with their old buddies from Ukraine. A lot has been written about that in publications you don't even know about. Nuttin to do with Trump, or (in essence) Russia. But one degree to Killary.

Working for a party backed by Russian oligarchs is having something to do with Russia.

See what? Did you read at least the first page of the document linked by C_Felix? The conspiracy is money laundering with their old buddies from Ukraine. A lot has been written about that in publications you don't even know about. Nuttin to do with Trump, or (in essence) Russia. But one degree to Killary.

One degree to Trump, as well, unless you want to claim now that Manafort had nothing to do with Trump's campaign.

If there are now criminal charges, is Trump allowed to say anything by way of support, or would that be considered to be interfering in a criminal case?

When has that ever stopped the Trump Administration ?

I expect a full Twitter storm, more outrageous allegations against Hillary, Comey, Mueller and so on, some kind of ramping up against North Korea and picking some kind of nonsensical fight with another group of people to create a smokescreen.

I also expect calls from The President for the power of the press and FBI to be curtailed and for the courts to be subservient to the Executive - claims which will then be spun differently by his lackeys like Kelly and Sessions.

It kind of is. If I read it correctly, it is basically "conspiracy to commit a federal crime". I'll add the obligatory IANAL in this case, but that's what it looks like to me.

I've skimmed the indictment. Here's what it appears to me. Manafort and Gates were paid lobbyists of the Ukranian government for a long time, before Manafort became Trump's campaign manager, but they didn't pay taxes on all the money that they were paid by the Ukranians.

It appears this has nothing to do with Trump at all. As the radio-speakers I heard this morning were saying, it is a means to put the squeeze on him and spill the beans on anything that he knows about Trump or the Trump campaign.

ETA: I should add that these don't look like some sort of trumped up charges (no pun intended). It looks like these guys were involved in some serious and very deliberate tax evasion. It's just that their prior criminality is not directly a Trump thing. However, it gives the prosecutors leverage. Cooperate with the bigger investigation in exchange for some leniency on the foreign lobbying/tax evasion charges.

How witty. You'll be in for a couple of more surprises as long as you receive your programming from complicit sources, buddy. Fun to watch, though.

From another article on your fantastic link:

Quote:

In an apparent direct attack on free speech, social media giant Facebook has, without warning, banned the highly viewed alternative news website Infowars.com from broadcasting live video on their platform.

This despite the fact that Infowars and Alex Jones regularly draw millions of viewers per month to their Facebook video content as well as “substantial” advertising revenue spent with the company over the years.

Oh, horror! Vlad's white kool-aid buddies in danger!

__________________Driftwood on an empty shore of the sea of meaninglessness. Irrelevant, weightless, inconsequential moment of existential hubris on the fast track to oblivion. Spends that time videogaming.

Not the indictment, sure. But Manafort's one degree away from Trump and the Russia scandal, so it's related to the topic.

Re the conspiracy against the US charge, would you get that no matter what federal crime you conspired to commit?

IANAL, but my understanding is that conspiracy charge would apply if you conspired with another person to defraud the federal government in anyway.
E.g. it could be as minor as you and a friend planning to underpay your taxes.

Conspiracy Against the United States sounds an awful lot like something treasonous, but in fact it’s far from it. All it takes, according to the statute, is two people working together to:

commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy….

Basically, if you and a buddy try to pull a fast one on any part of the government, that’s conspiracy against the U.S. Manafort and his associate Rick Gates are accused of lying to the U.S. Attorney General’s office in a document that was filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The statements related to political work for Ukraine.

If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.

At first glance, this does not seem to be anything in the realm of treason by a long shot, despite the name.

If someone with actual legal knowledge chimes in, I will be happy to defer to them.

__________________Drive-by snark artist.
Deep thinker as long as I can do it quickly with minimal effort.
Band wagon pile-oner

Not the indictment, sure. But Manafort's one degree away from Trump and the Russia scandal, so it's related to the topic.

Re the conspiracy against the US charge, would you get that no matter what federal crime you conspired to commit?

IANAL, but I think so, if it in any way related to a government function. In this case, if I read it correctly, they interfered with the Department of Justice by lying to them during an investigation, and they interfered with the Department of the Treasury by not correctly reporting income.

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